Sandwich shop workers get awful Christmas surprise: They're all fired

Trish Kahle leads demonstrators in a chant as they protest for a pay increase for fast-food and retail workers on Dec. 5, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Employees of a Chicago sandwich chain opened their email on Sunday to find a surprise just before Christmas: they would all be without a job the next day.

An email went out to all 20 workers at a Snarf's Sub Shop in Chicago Sunday night informing them that the store would be abruptly closing for an “unknown period of time” for remodeling and that they were all terminated as of Monday.

The employees were told they would receive their final paychecks on the Friday after Christmas and told to ”keep an eye out for the grand opening of the new store.”

Jill Preston, Snarf's director of marketing, told Chicago Grid that the termination was not related to the strike that left the restaurant shuttered for four days, but due to the slow business of the holiday season.

“This is something we've had planned for awhile,” Preston said of the remodel that employees were not informed of before Sunday's email blast.